Sands & Hunter Improved Tourist Camera
The Improved Tourist is a finely crafted brass-bound mahogany 1/2 plate camera capable of taking both stereo and single photographs. The stereo images are a generous 1/4 plate size or approximately 3 x 4 inches each. By shifting the lens board and capping one lens, single non-stereo photographs can be taken.
Sands & Hunter was a long-lived London, England camera manufacturer and retailer. The name of the firm changed over time, progressing from Hunter & Sands; Sands & Hunter; Sands, Hunter & Company and finally Sands, Hunter & Company Ltd. The maker's name appears as Sands & Hunter on this particular camera indicating it must have been manufactured sometime between 1883 and 1892.
This example does not have a shutter. If one existed at some time in its past, it would have probably been an accessory attachment fitted over the lenses. In the absence of a shutter it was fairly common to control exposure by removing and replacing the lens caps. The lenses are
f8 to f64 Thornton Pickard Beck Symmetricals with iris diaphragms. The bellows is a deep red color. The Improved Tourist is a tailboard design with a side wing for extra rigidity.
Back View of Improved Tourist Camera
Closed Improved Tourist Camera
Maker's Nameplate
|
A navigation frame with links to other pages on this site should appear on the left of this page. If it is not there, click HOME to make it appear. |
This page was updated June 19, 2001